The Captain of My Heart
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: Takes place during Robin's origin story arc. It was rare for Luffy to find someone that he would not only give up his position as a captain of his pirate crew for, but his dream as well to be the king of Pirates. Not many people were worth it. But when he did find that someone, he would hold onto them just as stubbornly as he would any of his friends. If not more so. Luffy/OC
1. Chapter 1

It had been a day in a half since they had left the Enies Lobby as it had crumbled and fallen into the sea and everyone was on edge. He was no different as he patiently waited for the young woman lying on Robin's bed to awaken. He folded his hands in his lap for what must have been the millionth time in so many minutes.

Or was it hours? As he began to get more and more agitated as he thought over the events that had occurred within the past twenty four hours.

Robin had left them and been captured by the military. Her childhood friend that she hadn't seen on more than ten years had appeared at Enie Lobby at the same time that they had and after hearing Robin declare that she wanted to die, had lost her temper and shouted out.

 _"That isn't going to happen, Robin. I forbid you to die and leave me alone again!"_ Drawing his and that of his nakama's attention to her.

His first over all impression of her wasn't all that great.

Sure she had a pretty face, long silky black hair, and her eyes were the prettiest stormy green/turquoise that he'd ever seen before in his life. But she was also painfully thin, sickly almost, and surely she hadn't much strength in her.

Man had he been wrong.

The moment that she had stepped up, he'd felt it. Like a weird pounding in his chest. He'd gotten a strange fluttering sensation in his gut and as he looked at her again, this time more closely, he'd seen it. His sharp eyes zeroing in on her before narrowing just a little bit.

He only got like this when he'd found a new crewmate. Usually.

However this time, he'd gotten like that because he'd found something better than a crewmate. Better than a mere new friend and ally.

He'd found someone to follow.

A captain of his own.

He didn't think he would ever find another aside form his older brother Ace. Yet here she stood. This frail, sickly and weak looking young woman was one of his. Yet he wasn't completely sure if she was worthy of him.

And in a moment of doubt he had sealed everyone's fate with a deal that he'd been sure that she wouldn't been able to fulfil.

 _Again_ he'd been wrong. He had been an asshole in those doubt filled and stressed moments and he fucking knew it.

Even now, the memory of his own doubt filled words uttered so arrogantly, set his teeth on edge. _"If you can save Robin, then I will give up my rank as captain of the Merry- I will give up my friends and crew and abandon my dream and follow you to the ends of the earth. Can you do it? Can you look me in the eye and tell me honestly that you can save her?"_

Her green eyes had met his own stormy grey and she had responded to him words without any hesitation whatsoever. Damn near bowling him over.

"Watch me." She had dared him.

And with that she was gone, throwing herself headfirst off of the courthouse and using a speed that was rare even among normal humans to race up to where Robin was and met the blade of the Spandam bare handed, viciously striking again and again and driving him back away from Robin while he and the others had watched in slack jawed disbelief for a moment before he had then grabbed everyone and threw them all into the fight to help.

The fight had taken almost five hours. And in the end his own battle had been the most drawn out. and he'd almost died twice or rather he would have if it wasn't for Usopp's sharp shooting.

When he had returned to the Merry to finally regroup with the others he had been more than a little bit impressed with the fact that not only was everyone alive but they had suffered minimal damage. With of course the exception of Robins childhood friend and himself.

Chopper had been in a frenzy trying to treat her because her injuries had been the most life threatening. And after a little while managed to stabilize her, sort of, before he had begun treating Luffy who was already healing himself. But then everything had been shot to shit when she had suddenly started hemorrhaging a few hours ago.

She had nearly bled out before he could really do anything to help her. And once he had finally managed to stop the bleeding, he had left the cabin in a weird sort of daze.

Luffy would be lying if he said that he wasn't furious right now.

Kay was supposed to be his captain. The one person in the world with the exception of his brother that he would follow unquestionably, and without complaint. And she had almost killed herself simply to fight in a battle that she'd had no business being in in the first place.

Looking back down at her, he couldn't help but notice how very young she looked. Robin herself was in her twenties, and this girl was at least seven or so years younger than her. Making her around his own age give or take a year or so.

That was much too young for a girl to have wound up in the family way without a boyfriend or husband. And far too young for her to have seen and done as much as Robin had told them all she had.

Sighing, he bowed his head for a moment and then looked at her again before unlacing his fingers and reaching out to brush some of her dark hair away from her pale face. Jesus her skin was practically translucent underneath all of those cuts and bruises!

"What am I going to do with you?" He wondered aloud. She didn't respond to his question, but then after all the blood loss that she had experienced, he didn't really expect her too.

Sighing again, he tried to push aside his anger and frustration and simply settled himself back in his seat as the cabin door slowly opened and he looked up to see Sanji standing there with a few plates perfectly balanced on his head, and along one of his arms and on the tips of his fingers.

"Hey. Chopper said that you both might be hungry. So I fixed some food for you both."

Luffy didn't say anything, he merely nodded his head at the blond and let him know that it was okay to come in. Sanji entered the room and was careful to close the door behind him before crossing it to set everything down on the medium sized table not too far from either the bed nor where Luffy sat.

"How's she doing?" Sanji asked, curious to know how their latest stray was feeling. When Chopper had finally visited him in the kitchen, only he, Nami and Zorro had been present to hear the shocking words that explained the hemorrhaging from before.

And they had all been understandably upset. Nami had started to go and get Robin when Chopper had stopped her and told them not to tell her. At least not until her friend brought it up. Sanji thought that he really meant, 'if' she brought it up as Chopper had gone on to explain that Robin had suffered enough trauma for a while. She didn't need to know about her friend right away because there was nothing that she could do about it now anyways. Everyone had been quiet, but had reluctantly agreed with the ship's doc to keep their mouth's shut about the topic for now.

After all, going to save Robin had cost the young woman dearly.

Pirates didn't have families in the conventional sense. At least most didn't. Which had more to do with them being outlaws and having bounties on their heads than not wanting families. Though there were a precious few that managed to find someone accepting enough to settle down with.

Luffy's older brother Ace, and Usopp were proof enough of that.

Still, children were incredibly rare among pirates. And the loss of one was felt as keenly as a blade to the heart. He had no doubt that the woman would have a difficult time of things. He just wondered if Luffy realized how hard things would be for her.

"She hasn't woken up yet." Luffy finally said after a few heart beats of agonizing silence. Sanji glanced at him and frowned slightly when he noted how anxious and angry the younger man was.

What is eating him? He wondered before recalling Luffy's words to her before she had launched herself off of the building to go to Robin.

"Luffy... You do know that when she wakes up she'll...probably be in a bad way. If she knew about her condition, she may be angry and hurt and might even lash out in her grief. And if she didn't know-" Sanji only bothered to mention this to his friend because Luffy had a habit of sometimes acting so rashly towards others whom were hurt in a bad way, that he more often than not wound up with his foot in his mouth. And Sanji doubted that the woman would like his young friend to be a little ass towards her once she awakened, assuming things when it may not be what had _actually_ occurred.

Luffy visibly tensed, his mind turning the last of Sanji's words over in his head at such high speeds that it was almost impossible for him to wrap his head around the concept. I mean, the woman had been in the family way, how could she _not_ have known about her condition?

"Luffy?"

"She looked so pale...and sickly when I first saw her back at Enie Lobby... So weak- I didn't think when I spoke... But _goddamn_ it how could I have-" Luffy finally seemed to break and buried his face in his hands, and began to cry right in front of him.

More than a little bit alarmed by the nonsense that his friend was saying, it took him more than a moment to piece things together before moving to his captain's side and quickly tried to calm his friend since he very much doubted that the small cabin could handle being trashed during one of Luffy's temper tantrums.

"Hey, calm down. You couldn't have known about her being pregnant before the fight. She didn't look it nor did she say anything or show any concern about her condition- it wasn't like you deliberately antagonized her into fighting along side us."

"But I did..." Luffy said quietly. "Don't you recall what I said to her?"

Sanji scowled and was about to call Luffy an idiot when he stopped as he thought for a moment before realizing just what the hell Luffy was talking about.

 _"If you can save Robin, then I will give up my rank as captain of the Merry, I will give up my friends and crew and abandon my dream to follow you to the ends of the earth. Can you do it? Can you look me in the eye and tell me honestly that you can save her?"_

"Oh shit- I forgot about that." Sanji said under his breath before asking in a shocked/slightly hysterical tone, "Were you serious? Did you actually mean every word that you said to her?"

"I'm a lot of things Sanji, but technically a liar isn't one of them." Luffy finally calmed down enough to say in a somber tone as he lifted his hands to wipe at his face, wanting to get rid of the traces of tears that had been there mere moments before.

It simply wouldn't do for him to fall apart like this. Not when his captain would need to rely so heavily on his strength until she was better.

But he didn't have any way to gauge how long it would take her to become well again.

How long did parents mourn their lost children? Especially those that were never born in the first place? A few months? No that didn't seem right.

Robin had told them a few hours after they had left the navy behind that Kay was a person who valued all life. It took something extreme for her even to consider the justifiable killing of another. And there were very few exceptions that she would even consider.

But that by no means meant that she went out killing people willy nilly or anything. In fact Robin had stressed that she was a _lot_ like Luffy in that regard and it took a lot to well and truly piss her off.

Luffy for all his faults knew that he was a killer.

He didn't really joke around when he decided to get his hands dirty. He'd killed navy officers and other pirates alike, mostly in self defense or in defense of his nakama, but there it was. He killed.

And sometimes he even _enjoyed_ it.

But it took a lot to drive him to that sort of vindictive rage.

He supposed that it was good that his captain valued life as she did. Or as Robin claimed she did. He didn't want anymore deaths than necessary on her conscience. He could live with the guilt and shame, but he wasn't so sure that Kay could. So from now on if there was anyone in need of killing, he'd kill them to prevent her from having too.

He was so caught up in his own thoughts that he didn't really notice that Sanji hadn't said anything since he had replied to his question until he was suddenly jerked out of his chair so that his feet were barely touching the floor as the blond practically snarled at him.

"You goddamn punk! How dare you! How dare you start this adventure of yours if you weren't going to stay and finish it! We gave up our jobs, our homes, our old lives to follow you!"

"Do you think that I don't know that, Sanji. I do. And I think of it often-" Sanji suddenly clammed up to listen to him, wanting him to tell him the real reason why he had made the woman that promise. He just...needed to understand. "I'm always lying awake after a bad battle thinking, _'If I wasn't here, who would lead them?'_ or _'If anything happened to any of them- I would never forgive myself.'_ I may have said those words yesterday at the spur of the moment, but I have my reasons. You've traveled with me for years Sanji, you've put up with my shit, my recklessness and stupidity."

"I'm good at those things, but yesterday when I said those words- do you know what she said back to me? _'Watch me.'_ Just that. I dared her to jump into the fray when she should have been somewhere safe. Those two words absolutely bowled me over. I knew then, just like I knew when I collected the lot of you- that she was one of my own... But more than that, she is someone that I myself would follow."

"I've only ever willingly followed my brother the same way that you and the others follow me. And now I've found someone else to follow, I need you to understand just how fucking important that is! I need you to understand that as someone I care about- as one of my crew and friends, I can't simply go back on my word. We aren't the only ones affected by what happened yesterday, dammit. She was too. She not only helped up declare war and wrest Robin back form those fuckers, but she lost something that she can never get back! We owe her. _I owe her._ And if it means spending the rest of my days as a lowly subordinate to her every whim, then that's just how things will be. I can live with it. It won't kill me."

Sanji felt his prior anger at the idiot completely fizzle out as he slowly released him from his grasp and let the man that he'd followed beyond the Grand line fall back to his previous place in his seat and simply stepped back for a second as Luffy tugged at his vest, trying to straighten it out some before Sanji finally said.

"I see. So that's what's going on. I can't say that I completely understand, but I think that kinda do. Basically she swept you up like a storm at sea," Luffy thought for a moment before merely shrugging his shoulders, not really understanding the analogy all that much before Sanji then tacked on, "Well even if she doesn't kill you, Zorro or Nami certainly might."

"I know. But..." Luffy glanced back at Kay and sighed again, "I can't break my promise to her. And at the same time I can't simply ask her to join the crew here on the Merry. It would cause no end of trouble, especially since no one would know their ranks anymore. I figure that even if she does let me stay on as captain, I would still follow her wherever she went. Even if she ordered me not too. Not only that, but from the looks of her, both before and after yesterday's fight- she's been going without for a while now. I can't help but wonder how she's been taking care of herself. She's frightfully thin for someone her age. Fragile, ya know? She'll need time to get better. months, maybe even years of round the clock care. It wouldn't be fair of me to ask you guys to help with that when there is still so much to do. So much out there to see..."

"Luffy-"

"Zorro will make a good captain for you. And I'll ask Robin what she wants to do, but I'm betting that she might leave with us. She'd worry otherwise. You know how girls can be. And if she does leave with us, then that will make you the first mate. You'll have a lot of new responsibilities, but something tells me that you will be fine. And if there's ever any time when you wanna meet up or if you need help- all you'll have to do is use one of those snail thingys and I'll come running even though I'll probably have to drag her with me."

"Y-You really do think a lot of those things?"

"Of course I do. I'm your captain, and I worry about the lot of you." Luffy said with a small grin as Sanji bowed his head to him and let a small wistful smile grace his own lips before saying,

"Then I should thank you."

"Huh?"

"Thank you for bringing me out to sea, thank you for taking me on this great adventure, and most of all, thank you for being my friend."

"Hey you don't have to thank me for those things Sanji, I was happy to do them." Luffy said as he tried to wave the man's words off. But when Sanji looked at him again, he could see that it meant something to the blond to thank him for those things, so he dropped his hand and merely looked away as he heard Sanji head back towards the door.

"I'm aware that you were happy to do them, but I thought i'd get thanking out of the way while I could. Because Zorro and Nami really are going to kill you." He said before slipping back out of the room and closing the door behind him. Leaving Luffy to his thoughts as he leaned back against the door from the other side before noticing that everyone but Robin had gathered around the room.

"You guys heard." It wasn't a question. Sanji knew that everyone had heard their whole conversation. Their expressions spoke volumes.

Zorro looked like he wanted to kill something, Franky looked- well, saddened by the thought of Luffy leaving them. He was a new addition to the crew and didn't know the younger man that well, but in the few weeks that he'd been with them, he'd like to think that he had become good friends with the young captain of the Merry. Nami was crying quietly, unable to believe that Luffy was going to so blatantly rip apart what he had helped them all to create together. And Copper...well, he seemed the calmest of the group aside from Sanji, but the cook figured that that may have to do with his quick and analytical mind.

He supposed that it was easier for the doc to figure out what was making Luffy's mind tick. The two did seem oddly in tune with each other, so it wasn't an impossibility.

And then there was Usopp. He looked like he was in shock over the whole thing, but he wasn't saying anything, so Sanji wasn't one hundred percent sure what he was thinking.

"He's decided that Zorro will take his place once he's gone-" Sanji started when Zorro snarled.

"Oh hell fucking no! I'm not taking his place, no one is! He isn't going anywhere!"

"Then what do you propose that we do? He's dead set on keeping his word."

Everyone was quiet for a moment or so before Franky said gleefully, "We could shanghai them both. If he goes where she goes then it only stands to reason that we keep her aboard the ship. Yeah?"

Everyone looked at the cyborg for a second before Zorro asked Sanji how much longer it would be before they would need to dock somewhere and get supplies. Upon hearing Sanji's reply, the swordsman grinned evilly and exercised his first and last order as the Merry's new captain.

"Okay people, we're shanghai'ing Luffy and our new friend. Lets get somewhere way out at sea and drop anchor for a bit so that we can talk sense into our favorite idiot's thick skull. And if that doesn't work, we'll take him out on deck and beat the hell out of him."


	2. Chapter 2

Luffy stayed shut up in the tiny cabin with Robin's friend for a good three days. Which was great for his 'crew' since it meant that the lot of them were able to carry out Zorro's order without much of a fuss just yet. And in that time they had gotten far enough away from any land that even if Luffy or Kay threw a world class hissy fit, neither of them would be able to so much as get off of the ship without drowning.

Also there was the fact that Robin had caught on to their little scheme like hours after it had been implemented, and while she wasn't exactly happy about the dirty tactics, she had promised not to tell Luffy anything and then had walked off to go visit Kay.

Kay had remained asleep for the entirety of the three days that they had been at sea, and Luffy had decided to attach himself to her side like a damned barnacle to the underbelly of a whale. Or maybe he was more like a leech?

None of them could really figure out what he was- just that he was beginning to annoy them with his refusal's to leave the woman's side.

Sanji and Chopper were a great deal more understanding about the whole thing than the rest of them were. Mainly because they had seen the toll that the past three days had been taking on their friend. He was quiet. Far more than he'd ever been before in all of the time that they had gotten to know him.

Not only that, but his appetite had greatly decreased. Though oddly Kay's food was usually touched a bit. But after the two had asked Luffy if she had regained consciousness yet to eat, and getting a frustrated sounding no from their friend, they had come to realize that the only reason that Kay's food was touched at all had to do with the fact that Luffy had been forcing the stuff down her throat at a fairly steady rate.

Gradually strengthening her body with each meal, and helping her to slowly heal from all of the blood loss that she had suffered while he went without and simply maintained a steady watch on her for any signs of distress or decline.

Finally, late evening on the third day all of his exhausting work finally paid off.

Kay began to stir and then slowly opened her eyes causing him to suddenly sit up a little bit straighter in his chair before quickly moving closer to her side and taking one of her hands in his own as her eyes flickered open.

"Hey," He said, making sure to speak in a low, gentle tone as her fingers tightened for a second around his own. "Don't move and don't try to talk for a second. Give me a moment to get you something to drink first, okay?" She didn't speak and instead squeezed his fingers again to show that she understood as he slowly pulled them from her grasp, wincing slightly at the way her hand fell limply to her side and just lay there as he grabbed the pitcher that Robin had brought in earlier and one of the tea cups that Sanji had brought by just in case she got thirsty.

And it was a good thing that someone had thought to leave a cup behind, Luffy never would have thought of asking for one. Carefully fixing Kay some water to drink, he then picked up the glass and walked back to her side and slipped a hand underneath her head like he had been doing these past few days when he had been feeding her while she slept, and put the cup to her lips and carefully tipped it just so that enough water slipped between her lips without choking or drowning her in the process.

"You've been sleeping these past three days," He started to say before falling quiet when she weakly tapped his arm with her hand to indicate that she'd had enough water for the time being. Understanding what she was trying to say, Luffy removed the cup from her lips and gently laid her back down. Knowing that with her injuries, that one small movement had likely hurt her considerably.

He started to open his mouth to tell her that everyone was fine, but she had lost the baby when she had beat him to it, causing him to snap his mouth closed as she looked at him with blank green eyes and croaked. "Everyone? Okay?"

"Everyone is fine." He assured her as he took up his spot next to her on the edge of the bed again. She fell silent for a moment before croaking out her next question.

"Lost it huh?"

"Lost?" Luffy asked, at first not really understanding her question. But after a second or so, he caught on and let his gaze wander a bit before responding with a calm, but saddened sounding.

"Yeah."

"Oh..." Was all that she really said as she seemed to withdraw into herself a little when Luffy felt the need to ask, simply to satisfy his curiosity and learn what kind of person she really was deep down,

"Why did you do it if you knew about your condition? You could have stayed somewhere safe, left saving Robin up to me and the others. So why didn't you?"

"Cause Robin is my friend. But more than that, she's place I have to return to when I have nothing else. I know that she would never turn me away if I needed her, why would I do the same regardless of my condition. I'm not a cruel person, and I'm not trying to belittle the life that I just lost. _That was my baby_. My son or daughter that has been lost to the world. Robin's godchild. I could never have a child and raise it without her in this world to drop by every now and then and check up on us or visit. I calculated the chances of success if I simply left it to you and your friends. You are strong, but not strong enough. You would have lost not only Robin but maybe one or two others. After that you would have been defeated and captured."

"So then I calculated the odds of success if I joined you. The chances of coming out alive with my help far surpassed the odds of you making it without my help. I weighed the options. And found that though I would be able to save more than just Robin's life- I would have to sacrifice a part of myself to do it. I went knowing that I was going to lose my child. I went knowing that I may even die. I regret that my baby died because of my actions, but I don't regret saving my friend." She said weakly as her eyes began to drift closed again.

Luffy wanted to be mad- no scratch that, he wanted to be downright furious with her for what she had done to herself and her unborn- but when he heard her explain things like she just had, he found that he was oddly lacking in the anger and fury departments.

Okay, so she had known. He could live with that. She had weighed the risks and odds with a calm and calculating mind. He could live with that too. But he was a little bit pissed that in some way he and his friends had been found lacking.

Still, he could work with this.

His captain's analysis was probably more correct than even he was aware of. And if so then he would have to do some serious training to beef himself up a bit so that he didn't fail her the next time something happened.

He managed to doze off in his seat after a few hours, dreaming about if he could rope- *cough* _con_ *cough*- Zorro and maybe the others into training with him. That way he wouldn't be the only person to benefit.


	3. Chapter 3

It was around ten the next morning, which is right around breakfast time for those whom managed to sleep in late when Luffy finally emerged again, earing a few weird looks and some not so subtle jokes at his expense from Sanji and Franky as he slowly trudged towards his cabin to grab a shower, his toothbrush and some clean clothing.

One of which almost jumped up out of his seat mid meal and jumped up onto the table as he yelled out and pointed, "Look! It's the elusive Monkey D. Lufficanus! One of the most elusive creature's in the world. This creature is so rare that he can be likened to the mystical unicorn!"

To which Sanji responded with a snigger, "Let's poke him with a stick!"

Luffy paused in mid step and tensed ever so slightly as something a way's away caught his attention for a moment, before he called out to the lot of them, "I don't know what you jerks are planning but I suggest that you weigh anchor and get this tub moving again before I kick all of your asses overboard." And then started walking again, completely missing the looks of comical disbelief on the faces of almost all of his friends as both Sanji and Franky finally sank down into their seats at the table and everyone began whispering.

 _"How does he do that?"_ Franky asked in a scandalized sounding tone.

"I dunno. He's always been a bit weird." Usopp said in a hushed tone before Nami chimed in,

"One day I saw him staring at the water for a good fifteen minutes before he told me that we were going around in circles, which we were, but still- How did he know that from just looking at the water?!"

"Maybe he memorized with waves." Robin said seriously, finding this entire conversation more than a little bit fun to listen to. So naturally she couldn't help but want to join in even if it was just to mess with everyone's heads a little bit.

Everyone practically screamed in shock before suddenly falling silent and looking to Zorro as if he was the leading authority on Luffy's Luffy-ism or something. Causing the green haired swordsman to growl at them. "Stop looking at me like that you bunch of freaks! I don't know how he does it either!"

"And yet you've known him the longest." Nami said before Chopper said,

"And you call yourself his best friend- your friend license should be revoked."

"Shut up you jerks!" Zorro snapped at them before getting up and stomping off to do some morning kata's so that he could cool down.

Luffy watched his friends from the crack in his door and smirked evilly around his toothbrush. His special band of idiots had apparently thought that they could pull the wool over his eyes for a while, huh? He'd known that the anchor had been dropped since the other day when they had dropped it instead of continuing to sail as they should have. Mainly because when their ship dropped anchor, it slowed and even lurched a bit before stopping.

Not only that but once he had figured out what they had done, he'd had to move quickly to Kay's side and use himself to shield her from any possible injuries that she could have sustained during the 'lurch' bit. He'd had books, pictures and a few other things fall on top of him.

But that wasn't all his idiots hadn't considered. At the moment they were all very, very wanted men and women by the world government. And since they weren't moving anymore... He knew that it was only a matter of time before the navy would catch up to them.

But whatever.

If his idiots wanted to court trouble then he'd let them as long as it didn't lead to his captain being dragged into any of the possible fighting along with them.

If that happened then he'd have to kick each of their asses several times over. Moving back a tad from his cabin door, he used the toe of his bare foot to close the door and then shook his head as he walked back towards the bathroom to spit out the toothpaste he had been holding in his mouth for the past six minutes or so.

The minty flavor was nice and all, but if one kept it in their mouth for more than a minute or two, it tended to burn one's mouth like acid. Then that minty flavor became a damned curse that just made one's mouth burn all that much more.

Once he had done that, he turned his attention to the shower and turned the tap on.

He needed to wash away several days worth of BO, sweat, blood, dirt and dust. And he needed to do so quickly if he was going to redress in his clean clothing and make himself more presentable for his captain. Humming as he quickly stripped out of his dirty and smelly clothing, he then stepped into the shower and sighed as the warm water hit his skin, helping some of his tense muscles loosen and relax.

Quickly grabbing his favorite soap, he lathered up everything that he could think of- including his hair- and then once that was done and he looked like a big ol bubble monster, he turned and moved back underneath the spray a bit and began rinsing everything off.

All in all it took him about ten minutes or so before he was what he dubbed 'squeaky clean' and was out of the shower again after he turned the tap off. Grabbing the towel he'd pulled from the wooden cabinet before he had paused his routine to watch his friends a little bit, he quickly dried himself off and then grabbed his clothing.

Today he figured that he would go with his usual knee length blue denim shorts and instead of his usual vest, he had picked out a T-shirt that he'd gotten from his brother about the time that he and the others had met Ace while they had been on their way to Alabasta.

It was a solid black shirt, with a nice jolly roger print on the front of it in white.

He'd never really worn it before so he figured that now was as good a time as any to wear it. Especially since they had a lady aside from Robin and Nami on board and he didn't want her injuring herself trying to scurry away from him because of some ridiculous notion of maidenly modesty or some weird shit like that.

Also, he kind of didn't want to be dressed in a way that could offend her delicate sensibilities.

Finishing up his current task of straightening up his appearance, Luffy grabbed his trade mark straw hat and headed for the door so that he could go back to Kay's cabin and paused briefly when he noted that A) the anchor hadn't been raised just yet. And B) Sanji had just walked out of Kay's room- after delivering food, Luffy assumed.

Pissed about the first thing, but knowing that he had no right to bark out orders since he was stepping down as the crew's captain, he kept his mouth shut and merely went to check and see if anything to eat had been delivered to Kay's room and paused again when he grasped the door's handle and heard Robin's soft voice speaking on the other side.

Curious to see if Kay was awake now or if Robin was merely speaking to herself, he cracked the door open and found himself staring at both Robin and Kay.

His captain was finally wide awake it seemed, and sitting up when she shouldn't be too. And on top of that she was slowly working her way through the meal that Sanji had left for her while Robin grinned at her.

It was certainly a nice sight to see, Luffy thought to himself with a small grin as he slowly shut the door and decided to sit outside on the deck of the ship and enjoy the sunshine a little bit until Robin was done with her visit.

He must have sat in place for more than an hour, patiently waiting for her to leave when the door finally opened and she stepped out and looked around for a second before spotting him and smiling as she said in an apologetic tone. "Forgive me for monopolizing Kay's time like this Luffy, but after she ate and we talked a bit she wanted to try getting cleaned up some after I had mentioned that you had been staying with her."

Luffy got to his feet and smiled at her in understanding before replying. "It's fine Robin. She probably wouldn't have appreciated me being in there around the time she bathed and wondering if I should scrub her back or something."

Robin giggled at the mere thought of Luffy thinking something like that when she seemed to realize something and quickly moved in close to him to check for a fever or something.

"Maa, maa- what are you doing?" Luffy asked curiously as she laid a hand on his forehead.

"I-I just realized something," Robin said as he gave her a questioning look and did this odd little motion with his hands to indicate that she should continue. "I j-just realized that you see Kay as a person of the opposite sex. As an actual _girl_. You don't normally do that. If it had been me or Nami wanting a shower after being injured, you would have walked right in while we were naked and then you would look at us and then start stammering while you stood there trying to think of something relevant to say."

"Oi, I'm not that bad." Luffy growled at her, not liking where this conversation was going.

"No, you aren't that bad. But you've never really realized before that there are females and males in the world. You're totally immune to a woman's sex appeal and charms-"

Luffy had the good grace to duck his head and stifle a cough or two.

He more than knew the differences between men and women. But usually until he noticed, he simply labeled a person as 'sexless' or simply 'different from me' in his mind. Which was how a lot of accidents and misunderstanding involving Nami and Robin tended to happen in the first place.

But then again the world was full of weird and wonderful things. He knew already that he couldn't always trust his eyes or his sense of touch when it came to a 'female' form. He'd simply been fooled too many times on _that_ account.

Besides it wasn't like the occasional person didn't catch his attention and he automatically knew they were female or not. It did happen, it was just really, really incredibly rare. Almost like the earlier comment about the mythical unicorn.

Someone catching his attention and having him automatically know that it was a girl or woman- was exactly like _finding_ a unicorn.

Even so, despite his bandit/wild child upbringing which included the frequent bars he had hung out in once he hit eleven, he had been taught to respect girls by Shanks, his older brother Ace and a few of the bar sluts that he'd met and befriended. Well true girls, anyways.

He would never lay his hands on one in anger, nor would he ever strike one in a drunken rage. He would never fall into bed with one who was unwillingly, nor would he want to do something that would make one cry just to be cruel.

It was weird but every time a girl broke down crying his first and main impulse was to go and find flowers and a few stuffed animals. He blamed Shanks for that more than Ace- though both men had found it hilariously funny how he reacted to a crying female.

At least until they were both in his place, and then it wasn't so funny anymore.

Still, he wasn't nearly as bad as everyone thought he was when it came to the opposite sex. Robin slowly dropped her hand from his forehead and was about to go ahead and leave him alone when Luffy suddenly stopped her with one hand and asked her to come into the cabin with him, there was something important that he needed to speak to her and Kay about.

She gave him a questioning look but agreed and quietly followed him as he pulled open the cabin door and slipped inside and was almost run over by Luffy when he suddenly turned and tried to walk through her with his hands covering his eyes.

Wondering what was going on Robin let herself stagger back away from the young man for a moment before whipping her head around to look at her friend.

For once since she had been carried to the ship the other day, Kay was sitting upright. Her long dark hair was damp and tousled, some of it falling in soft waves and curls down the middle of her back. And she was wearing nothing but one of Zorro's over large T-shirt's and a pair of her own navy blue and black lace panties.

Which probably explained the amount of shoulder that was showing through one side of the neckline of the shirt, plus the bared smooth skin of her long slender legs.

Blinking at the sudden humor of the situation, she was about to call out and ask Luffy what was wrong when she heard him demand, "Tell her to cover up dammit! It isn't safe for a woman to be so indecently dressed!"


	4. Chapter 4

The moment that he was finished shouting about Kay being indecently dressed, Luffy rested his back against the door of the cabin feeling more than a little bit rattled. Though he didn't understand exactly why he was feeling so. He wasn't in a battle. No one's lives were in danger, and yet he felt that weird fluttering in the pit of his stomach again.

And on top of that, he kept having to wipe at his mouth with a slightly shaky hand. For some weird reason that he couldn't figure out, he kept trying to drool. Which was more than just weird, despite the fact that he hadn't really ate much of anything in the past few days, he wasn't burning up so many calories that he should be drooling like a starved mutt.

Closing his eyes for a moment, he tried to think of what had set him off like this.

Going over everything in his head, step by step, he figured out that the source of his current...uh... _distress_? Was none other than his captain. But more than that, after taking a moment to really analyze what he was feeling fully, he was able to pinpoint the sensation's in his stomach, the shaking in his hands, even the drool slipping from between his lips for what it was.

It was want.

Very, _very_ strong want.

Like the kind of want that tended to leg shackle a man to a woman. Well in his opinion anyways. How the hell could he be reduced to this from just seeing a little bit of bare skin? He wondered as he slowly tired taking deep breaths as he tried to think. When was the last time he had completely sated himself with a willing body? He couldn't recall. But he knew it had to have been around the time he had gotten Nami to join his crew. Which was...longer than he either cared to remember or longer than he could remember due to the lot of concussions he'd suffered at that particular time.

Groaning he mentally berated himself for not keeping a better check on such things since devil fruit eaters usually had super human powers but usually had super human libido's as well. Gods, how was he supposed to serve the woman as her subordinate if he was panting after her like she were a bitch in heat?

Maybe he should see if he could contact Ace and Shanks and see if they could give him some advice?

Pushing himself away from the door, he turned and started making his way to Nami's room where they kept their communication's snail. Last he checked, both his older brother and red haired Shanks were somewhere out past the grand line so he might be able to reach them easily and then again maybe not, depending on various things like the magnetic patters underneath the sea, violent storms and such.

Finally reaching Nami's room, he knocked just in case she was in there doing something important and heaved a small sigh of relief when he heard her voice reach his ears from somewhere out on the deck of the Merry. Which meant that he would have the privacy that he needed.

Pushing the door open, he stepped inside and quickly scanned the chaotic mess that the woman called her room and made a mental note to ask her to clean it up before she lost a map or something that they might need later on as he walked across the room and seated himself at the small desk and then reached up and took his hat off of his head and set it aside and then reached for the snail and began his newest task to see if he could get some decent advice.

(**********************************************************************************************************************************)

Shanks was snoring softly on his bed, enjoying the first real night of sleep in a long while when his communicator snail began to ring. Eliciting a small groan of irritation from the red haired man as he vaguely wondered if he could get away with dumping the damned thing over board like all of it's past predecessors without getting any grief from his first mate.

But then as soon as he was out of bed and on his way to do just that, he thought better of it.

After all, the last one that had been destroyed had been accidentally destroyed when he and some of his men had wound up being caught up in a bad storm in a small boat and lost at sea for days.

If it wasn't for the little snail that his first mate had been carrying on him at the time, they all likely would have died. So he should really be more respectful of the little devices. Especially since he owed his life and lives of three of his men to the damned things.

Grabbing up the ringing annoyance, he picked up the mouth piece and muttered, "Someone had better be dying." And for a moment was greeted by silence before he heard an all too familiar sounding,

 _"Shanks? Is that you? Cause if so I really need to speak to you or Ace!"_

"Luffy? Is that you lad?" Shanks said a little more happily, he'd missed the boy something fierce and practically itched for any and all opportunity to hear any news of him and his little crew. And with the shit that he'd heard about the Straw Hat's attacking a marine base and destroying the whole place just a few days ago, coupled with not knowing if he was alright- Shanks was damn near kissing the communication's snail- he was just so glad to hear form the lad.

 _"Yeah. Sorry to call so...uh...late. I really didn't mean to bother you if you were busy."_ Luffy said awkwardly from the other end of the line.

"I'm never to busy for you Luffy-boy. Now, tell Shanks what has you so...upset. It isn't what happened at the marine base several days ago, is it lad?"

 _"Wha? No, no, no. They deserved every little bit of what happened there. No I'm calling because I need some...uh... advice. But before I can tell you about what I need advice on, I guess a little bit of a backstory would be necessary. You're sitting down right now right?"_

Feeling a little bit of dread settle into the pit of his stomach he replied to the lad's question and then waited patiently as he launched into the tale of what had led him up to this point. The whole marine base, play by play was nice. Knowing the details of why that shit had happened was good too for future reference.

But it was when he began to mention the 'girl' that Shanks well and truly began to panic. Not because he thought that the lad would hurt her or anything, Shanks and Ace would both skin him alive if either of them ever heard of him hurting a lady.

But it was what he told him about her as well as his sudden and rather puzzling reaction to her that had his heart aching a bit.

The silly lad didn't know what was wrong with him, but Shanks did. And his older brother Ace would likely know some of it too since pirates were usually a superstitious lot. But those that had sailed long enough knew that many of those superstitions weren't as groundless as others may think or believe.

And from the sound of things, the lad had just found his soulmate and didn't realize it.

Finally Luffy had fallen silent and Shanks took a moment to simply say, "Tell me your current location. I'll contact your brother and we'll all meet up at a local island and have ourselves a nice chat."

Luffy thanked him and then said goodbye after telling him his current location. Leaving Shanks sitting in the semi darkness of his room, staring out his window at the sea before muttering, "A soulmate," And then chuckled quietly between muttering, "I'll be damned." As he quickly set the snail back down on his desk and then grabbed his jacket and walked over to his cabin door and jerked it open.

He needed to wake the crew and set sail if he was going to find Ace and then meet up with the boy.


	5. Chapter 5

Kay looked towards the door where the dark haired young man had just run out before shouting weird stuff about her being indecent before turning her gaze back to Robin's own curious ones and asked in a slightly confused, raspy tone. "Am I indecently dressed?"

Robin hummed thoughtfully before eyeing her for a second and saying, "Maybe a little bit. But only because you can't really wear normal clothing just yet." She gave her a small amused smile as Kay snorted and muttered something along the lines of ' that poor boy' under her breath before a brief expression of pain flickered across her pale face.

Which was a clear indication to her blue eyed friend that she still hurt pretty badly.

With the exception of the young man that had just left, and the blond one that brought her food several times a day, and Robin visiting- her world had been very quiet of late. But then she supposed that that was normal, given certain circumstances.

When she had heard almost a week ago that Robin had been captured by the navy, she had gotten scared. Very scared. And for good reason, the bastards had wiped out her longtime home along with everyone in it. Treating everyone there as a mass execution in need of doing instead of the innocent people that they were.

They had murdered well over eight hundred and thirty men, women and children. Including the already dying, elderly, ill, and infants. All because she had lived there.

But that was only half of the horror that she'd been forced to endure. The other half had been when she had been passed from one navy officer to another like a party favor and systematically raped, beaten, sodomized and such until she lost not only her ability to beg them to stop. But she had lost count of how many had taking such pleasure from her pain before they had finally left her, dumped over the side of their ship into the ocean, naked, bleeding and barely clinging to life.

It had taken her almost two long horrible months to completely heal up when she had woken up on an island several hundred miles from her former home. The doctor that had treated her had told her that she had lucked out when some pirates had been passing through and that they had fished her out of the water before the blood that she had lost could draw any ocean predators to her.

They had even been nice enough to semi treat her so that her condition was stabilized, and then upon reaching the island, had carefully carried her to the hospital and left a slightly larger than normal bag of gold coins behind to pay the doc for her treatment.

Maybe they had thought they should give her a decent burial, she didn't really know. And probably never really would.

However the doctor had been kind enough to merely take _one_ gold coin out of what must have been thousands, and had even helped her find a nice home upon her release and had also gotten what she would need on a budget until she got a job.

Leaving her with just enough gold coins left over to start a decent sized checking and savings account while she had looked for work in between going to physical therapy and such to make sure that she hadn't suffered any nerve damage from some of her injuries.

She had just started to get her life back, and was holding out against her inner demons and the trauma that she had suffered when she had started to get ill and realized that one of the bastard marine's had left her a little present.

Feeling Robin's hands carefully pressing down on her shoulders, Kay looked up at her friend as Robin chided her. "You need to lay back down and stay that way for a while longer."

Kay however refused to move, even if she was in need of rest so that she could heal form her injuries and merely muttered an childish, "Don't wanna." as she puffed out her cheeks in a pout that made Robin laugh.

"You look like a blowfish!"

"Do not."

"Yes you do! Stop it and lay down already."

"I said that I don't wanna."

"Well it's a good thing that I didn't ask if you wanted to. Now do it," Robin finally snapped at her. Kay flipped her off, subtly, by pretending to be using her bird finger to rub at one of her eye brows earning a narrow eyed glare from her friend before she asked, "Do you want me to break it off for you?"

"No thanks." Kay said a little meekly as she shifted herself and began to lay herself back down when Robin finally said,

"Everyone's been acting a little strangely for the past few days. I wonder if that had something to do with what Luffy needed to speak with us both about?"

"Who?"

"Luffy. The nice dark haired boy that your indecency chased out of here," Robin said with a smile before going on to say, "He's the captain of this ship. And the person who has sat by your bedside taking care of you since the day we left the marine base behind... Hn, I wonder if he wants you to join the crew?"

"Uh..." Kay said not knowing what else to say at the moment. Somehow saying a 'thanks, but no thanks' no matter how true it was just sounded ungrateful to her. So for the time being she'd stick to the unintelligible sounds.

Robin must have found her reaction to her words funny, because she started sniggering again and it made Kay want to get up out of the bed and throttle her. She might have actually done so- but the second that she started to raise herself up to launch herself at her friend, the door to the cabin slammed open. Startling them both.

Robin jumped a good foot, while Kay herself, lost her footing and went tumbling forward out of the bed with a semi startled sounding, "Eek!" She didn't really pay any attention to anything after that since she was a little bit preoccupied, but she did inevitably realize that she hadn't hit the floor.

In fact something was holding her up. Or rather someone was holding her up.

Curiosity finally got the best of her and she glanced up to find the dark haired boy from before standing right directly in front of her, glaring down at her from her half hanging perch between his body and the bed.

If those stormy grey eyes of his could incinerate something, then she would have been long burned to cinders and dead as she suddenly realized that her face was pressed rather intimately against his- Her mind stuttered to a sudden halt and she let out another 'Eek' sound as she turned six different shades of pink in abject mortification as the young man let out a slow, shuddering breath before turning his head in Robin's direction and growling out.

"Help. Please." As if he couldn't get her upright himself.

Robin whom had been laughing at her two friend's little situation up till then, looked carefully at Luffy and noticed that he was trying to restrain himself. What though, she couldn't begin to know. All she knew was that he looked like he could cheerfully rip someone's head off at the moment.

And since she didn't want the person he focused on to be Kay...well, she didn't really have any choice but to move forward and carefully remove her friend's face from poor Luffy's crotch area and make her lay back down when he finally seemed to snap out of his funk and hiss, "What the hell was she doing out of bed?"

Robin blinked at him for a moment, noting that he was using one of his I'm-going-to-fucking-kick-your-ass tones with her and took a small step back, unsure of what had set his temper off to such a degree.

"I-I," Was about as far as she got before he turned the full weight of his furious glare on her and snapped,

"She's injured Robin. She doesn't need to be up and out of bed when she's this hurt!"

Finally having enough of Luffy's little tantrum, Robin snapped back, "I didn't tell her to fall out of bed, you idiot so don't you dare stand there and yell at me. I was trying to get her to lay down when you startled us both busting in here like you did!"

Luffy got quiet. And Robin wondered what he was thinking as he continued to glare at her for a moment before finally saying in a much calmer tone, "I see. Sorry." Before turning his head to look at Kay whom had just watched the whole exchange and looked more than a little bit ill as Robin shoved her way past him to get to her friend's side and quickly sat herself on the edge of the bed so that she could calm the younger woman's rattled nerves.

Kay had always had a weird aversion to shouting, even when they had been kids.

For some reason the sound tended to upset her greatly. In some cases it upset her so much that she would lock herself in her room and crawl under her bed and cry and refuse to come out.

Apparently no matter how old she got, some things simply didn't change.

"It's okay, see we're still friends. Luffy and I were just disagreeing," Robin said, speaking as one would to a small child that was upset to see their parents fighting. The sight and sound of Robin doing this made Luffy frown a bit as he retook the seat that he'd practically been living in for these past few days when Robin reached out and lightly tapped the back of one of his hands with one of her own while saying, "See? Luffy is our friend." as she rocked the younger girl back and forth.

Finally Kay seemed to calm down enough that Robin could finally remove herself from her side and let her lay back down so that she could rest while she shot Luffy a look that promised retaliation later.

The teen merely sighed as soon as he saw that look on Robin's face, and took a moment to introduce himself to Kay. It was going to be the beginning of a long, conversation and he needed to get as many formalities out of the way as possible so that he could finally get the ball rolling and inform the two women of the sudden changes aboard the ship and what those changes meant.


	6. Chapter 6

Luffy sat with his hands carefully folded, and his chin resting in the heel of one hand while he watched Kay's shocked expression warily. Both woman were understandably speechless. And stunned at his declaration that he was stepping down as the captain of the Merry, leaving behind his friends and his dreams of being the king of pirate's and would be following Kay as her subordinate from now on.

Though he left out the specifics of the 'why' since Robin was present and he didn't want her to feel badly about the somewhat strained deal that he'd struck with Kay to save her life. She had enough on her plate without feeling guilt over him and his decisions.

Still, he could see that she was shocked beyond words at the moment too.

Kay looked so pale that he was slowly beginning to fear that she may faint any moment now as he waited patiently for someone to say something. Finally after what felt like forever, Robin's shaky voice was the one that he heard speaking up. "I thought that you were just going to ask Kay to join the crew..."

He let his grey gaze flicker to the crying woman and had to beat back the sudden urge to run from the room and see if he could find something that would make her smile like she had been before he had started talking. But he didn't dare move at the moment no matter how strong the urge to do so was.

He needed to know what Kay was thinking before he did anything at all since her opinion was as of now- the only real one that mattered to him.

"I could never ask her to join up as one of us," It was only partially true. He merely hadn't thought of asking her to join the crew so that he could in some way tie her to him first. After all what better way to follow someone than to have them think that they are following you? "She isn't a pirate. Is she?"

Robin looked a little bit pained by the question before finally looking away and muttering a soft sounding, "No."

"I'll admit, having her present would certainly be nice given her speed and hand to hand abilities-" Luffy began only to stop again when robin said,

"Those are only for self defense. She wouldn't use them for much else. Even if she was one of us, she would be killed the first time we went to fight someone."

Luffy merely thinned his lips behind his fingers and waited for Kay to snap out of her funk and chime in. And was only slightly disappointed when she merely flopped down on the bed and draped an arm over her eyes. As if she thought that by doing so, she could hide from him in some way.

His grey eyes narrowed slightly at the action and he felt an angry growl bubbling up in his chest, though he didn't bother making a sound just yet.

It wasn't as if she could shut him out forever. He wouldn't allow her to even entertain the notion for very long before he lost his patience with her and made her _look_ at him. But for now, he supposed that she just needed some time to process everything that he had said, so he would let it slide for now.

So after asking Robin if she would stay with her for a bit longer, and receiving confirmation that she wouldn't leave her alone- Luffy sighed as he slowly got to his feet, towering over Kay's form at an semi impressive height of six foot one, and gave her a quick calculating glance- noting that his captain was pretending to be asleep now he snorted in an almost amused manner before heading for the cabin door.

Deciding to wait outside and see what his captain tried to do since his declaration wasn't as well received as he had hoped it would be.

He'd bet that Kay would try to escape the ship just to get away from him. After all, if she had been paying any attention to his fights back at the marine base- she'd know that he didn't do well in water as a devil's fruit powered person. Settling himself towards the side of the door that would best hide him from view, Luffy sat himself down and drew his long legs up towards his chest and waited.

It wouldn't be long, he knew.

(*******************************************************************************************************************************************)

Several hundred miles away-

Shanks sat with his legs crossed and his wide shoulders slightly hunched over as he stared at Fire Fist Ace, the brat had taken the better part of many hours to track down, and at least that long to trace his exact location to a small island not too far from the one that Shanks had been inhabiting for the past few months.

After reaching the island, he'd dropped anchor in the dead of night- because it would be funny too, or so he had told his men- and taken seven of his best fighters with him to kidnap the little bastard son of his former/late captain and long time friend.

And it had been fun, at first.

They had caught Ace so drunk and unawares that the boy had practically skipped to their ship with them. Giggling madly the whole way. Of course the fun had sort of worn off when Ace had made the mistake of deciding that Shank's was such a 'pretty' young lady, and then kissed him.

Shanks had retaliated in kind by shoving Ace over the side of the ship and letting him get a little bit waterlogged. After that the boy had sobered right up.

Near death experiences tended to do that, the red haired man supposed as he listened with a bored roll of his eyes as Ace once again began swearing such foul oaths that they nearly made the red haired man cringe.

Nearly, of course, was the operative word there.

And when the boy wasn't swearing at him from trying to drown him, he was yelling terrible things at his men. So much so that all of them had finally grown tired of listening to him and simply stuffed a dirty sock in his mouth and then the lot of them had just grinned as the boy had blanched as he tried to tamp down on the need to vomit over the side of the boat from the foul taste on his tongue.

Ace knowing that he couldn't keep insulting Shanks without more serious repercussions, settled himself back and just glared at the amused man before Shanks finally asked him if he was done throwing a tantrum like a two year old. That just made Ace glare at him some more before Shanks then said,

"Your brother called me and asked for some help. So I told him I'd grab you and meet him someplace," Now the man had Ace's undivided attention. Not that he hadn't really before, but hearing him speak of his little brother tended to get Ace's attention in ways that nothing else could as Shanks went on to say, "You would not believe what the lad has found. Go on guess..." He gave Ace a few moments or so to try and guess before chuckling, "It isn't One Piece. Not yet least... He's talking about giving up his dream of being the king of pirates for honor's sake."

At hearing this, Ace's eyes about damn near bulged out of their sockets.

He couldn't imagine anything or anyone, lest of all something about honor making his stubborn little brother give up his life as a pirate, and even more so- his dream. So to say that he was at least a tad bit curious as to what his brother had done now- would of course be an understatement.

And from the knowing smirk on Shank's smug face, he fucking knew that.

Motioning for the man to remove the sock from his mouth, he waited patiently for that to be out of the way and had to resist the urge to bite Shanks fingers off for even daring to stuff something so foul between his lips. He could taste someone's foot sweat on the back of his teeth for crying out loud!

He'd just brushed them a few hours ago and had wanted the nice minty taste to last! Now that plan was shot to hell, his brother was probably in some sort of mess in need of his help, and he was being held hostage by Shanks.

He wondered if the man would at least spare his life if he tossed him and his men overboard the small dingy and rowed it away as fast as he could so that he could double back and get his boat and go find his brother.

No! Wait- that wouldn't work since Shanks had probably had some extra men collect his shit and everything was currently aboard his ship as they speak.

Well...maybe he could at least get the man to spare his life due to his affection for his brother? Perhaps even con him out of a last meal? Ace thought almost nervously before he finally asked. "What's Luffy gotten himself tangled up in this time?"

Shanks merely grinned at him and said, "You'll have to see it for yourself to believe it, lad. The two of us are going to be taking my ship and meeting up with him in the next few days."

Ace blinked at him for a second before finally asking, "So, you aren't going to kill me?"

"Luffy would come for me like a demon if I did, so no, your life is safe with me." Shanks said, as he tried to suppress a shiver as he imagined what Luffy would do to him if he really did kill Ace. The lad would completely forget any affectionate feelings that he held towards him and he would pursue him to the ends of the earth and beyond just so that he could slaughter him.

The sad thing is, Shanks knew that one day, even if that were to happen- he wouldn't bother fight back. He'd want the lad to kill him for hurting him so.

"When do we leave?" Ace asked after a moment or so. He'd noticed that Shanks was a tad bit lost in his own thoughts and had wanted to give him a little bit of time to sort things out before speaking again. And when he finally did speak, Shank's response was practically automatic.

The distant look in his copper colored eyes changed and he merely said. "As soon as we're on my ship and weigh the anchor, we'll be on our way. I figure that it will take at least two or so days to reach Luffy unless his crew mutinies and decides to keep sailing. In which case, we'll have to run them down."

"Alright then," Ace said as he started to relax a little bit when out of the blue Shanks kicked him. "OW!" Ace yelped before looking at the glowering man for a moment and then demanded, "What the hell was that for?!"

"That was for kissing me and calling me pretty. And this," Shanks stomped on him this time, putting the full weight of his whole body behind the action so that Ace would be left with a few bruises as a reminder to use his damn manners. shanks knew that the brat had them. He merely chose not to use them is all. "If for not using your manners you brat! I'm not a damned ferry service!"

"Ow, ow, ow! Okay! I'm sorry!"

Shanks merely took his foot off of him and grunted, "You better be."


	7. Chapter 7

It wasn't long after Luffy had left the cabin when he became aware of the flurry of activity within it. He could hear Kay's near hysterical voice _begging-_ his captain was actually _begging_ for Robin to help her get off of the ship. The moment that this fully registered with him, Luffy sighed and mentally admitted that he hadn't really anticipated this sort of reaction from her, and was sort of a little bit hurt and kind of a bit equal amount pissed at her reaction.

But it was understandable for someone who had lived as a civilian for a majority of her life, he supposed that he should have _realized_ just how upset she would be with his announcement. It was after all, a life altering decision that changed not just his life but her own.

And so while the two women were going back and forth in a little bit of a shouting match, and most likely fucking up the cabin a bit by throwing shit (he assumed). He quickly and carefully got to his feet and made his way down to the first level of the deck where the life boat and such were and made quick work of punching a rather large hole in the bottom of the one and only life boat that the ship had.

He'd replace it later on at the next island. But for now, it would only give Kay false hope that she could somehow manage to escape him.

 _And. He. Couldn't. Have. That._

Once he was done doing that, Luffy huffed and made a mental note to make sure that a new life boat or two were on Nami's shopping list once they reached land and then walked back to his previous place and began to sit himself down again when he realized that it was all but silent inside of the cabin.

Which meant that Kay was about to try and make her escape.

Though he couldn't help but wonder what she had done to Robin. Had she knocked her out or just tied and gagged her and stuffed her in a trunk or something?

He'd have to check after he stopped her from getting away. He just hoped that she wasn't hurt too awful bad. Chopper would have a fit if she was. Not to mention Nami and Sanji.

Come to think of it maybe he should just keep Kay from leaving the cabin and check on Robin while doing so. It would certainly stop thing's before they progressed too far. But the only downside to that plan was the fact that she wouldn't see the lifeboat for herself and know that it was now unusable.

Hn. What to do? What to do? He wondered when he heard the door start to unlatch and stiffened where he stood and readied himself for the possible fight ahead as the door finally swung completely open so quickly that he panicked for a split second before the wood slammed into his face, causing him to stagger back and hit the wall and slide down it as Kay ran from the cabin far faster than someone whom had been grieviously injured mere days ago, should.

Jumping up, Luffy slammed the cabin door shut so that it wouldn't be in his way and took off after her across the deck. Her speed held out until she reached where the boat was tied, and then...the last vestiges of her strength just seemed to peter out and she collapsed to the deck. One of her hands was still holding onto the side of the Merry so tightly that her knuckles turned white from the pressure as he jogged over and stopped within reaching distance of her and put his hands on his hips and glared down at her.

"Oi, what the hell did you think you were doing just now? You're supposed to stay in bed!" He practically growled at her, recalling that she didn't seem to like shouting and so made sure to keep his voice from raising to such decimals.

She twitched slightly where she sat, crumbled on the deck of his ship with her head bowed.

"You should really answer someone when they ask you something." He chided as he dropped down to a squat next to her and leaned over a little bit so that he could see her face. It was a little bit hard to see through hair as dark as her own. Upon finally seeing her face, Luffy began to feel more than a little bit alarmed.

He started to reach out and pull her into his lap when he just happened to glance down for a moment and noticed a dark stain spreading across the material of her shirt.

Gnashing his teeth in frustration due just as much to her stupidity as his own, he quickly grabbed her up and set her in his lap and unceremoniously grasped the hem of the shirt that she was wearing and pulled it up so that he could see how bad she was injured.

The moment that his eyes fixed on her newly bleeding wound, Luffy felt himself stare for a moment in utter horror at the sight of her stomach. It was a mangled mess to his eyes. Much like meat that had been ground up.

How the hell had she survived this? He wondered as he dropped the shirt back into place and put his hand over the wound to apply pressure on it to staunch the bleeding as he screamed for Chopper.

This time when Chopper began working on her- she was in his arms with half of the insides from her stomach barely inside of her body. This time, she was fully conscious and aware of every pain, every agony, every tear that she shed while she was being worked on.

But what was more, was that Luffy and the others were aware of it too.

And though no one besides Robin and Chopper had had anything to do with her so far, the others were still as horrified and shocked as he was. So when Chopped finally managed to stabilize her enough to carry her back to the cabin and finish treating her, Luffy merely sat where he was.

His mind a million miles away. And his expression reflecting that fact.

He didn't know how long her sat there, staring almost vacantly down at his hands where Kay's blood had dried on his skin. That sickly shade of scarlet. The painful smell of copper and pennies- all of these things seemed to swarm his senses as he thought, _She could have died. She could have bled to death right here in my arms._

And if she had? What would he have done then?

As time passed, he gradually became aware of his friends each coming to sit down beside him. Zorro on one side of him, Usopp and Sanji on the other. Robin and Nami were with Sanji trying to distract themselves, just in case.

And finally when Luffy returned to himself, he let out a soft chuckle that was several shades too dark and broken sounding to be mistaken for anything like actual amusement and said, "She could have died right here in my arms, with her blood on my hands. And yet my heart is hurting. Why is that?"


	8. Chapter 8

Contrary to popular belief, the Straw Hat pirates weren't nearly as fucking stupid as people outside of their crew tended to believe. Luffy, only acted like a dumbass to make himself seem less threatening than he actually was. Which was just brilliant, because nothing got anyone's attention faster than a lunatic believed to have less than half a brain cell between his ears walking up to a big bad and laying him out flat.

As it was, in the past two in a half years since Luffy had taken to the sea and began to build his crew- each of them could count on their hands and feet how many horrible battled that the teen had pulled them through on just his strength alone. And in that time, that had been totally undefeated.

Which was something totally unprecedented if one paid attention to anything that had to do with pirates.

Most new pirates and their crews would up dead within a month of taking to the sea. Either from arrogance, or being captured by the marines and killed, or simply murdered by bounty hunters out for their heads and so on.

But for some reason, despite the occasional going out looking for trouble- the Straw Hats had come to understand specific actions that Luffy pulled on them. Like when they managed to avoid any contact with marauding bloodthirsty pirates and marines.

If Nami was steering them one way- and if Luffy suddenly told them to change direction- it was usually because he _knew_ something that the rest of them didn't.

This however wasn't one of those occasions and those who had heard the younger man's words were simply at a loss. This wasn't exactly one of the usual situations that they had grown used to dealing with.

Their captain- er former, they meant to say former- captain looked to each of them as if someone had just taken his most cherished item and placed it in one of Sanji's most heavy duty blenders, _without_ ice cream, and simply destroyed it right in front of him. To be perfectly honest, none of them knew why he wasn't at least flipping out right about now and destroying something with his bare hands in a snit.

That was what they were used to.

Not this... _heart wrenching_ mess of a man.

The moment that he had started chuckling, they had all felt a shiver of fear race down their spines. And the second that he had said those damned words about his heart hurting, Zorro, Sanji, Usopp, and Franky had all exchanged a...look.

Not the _shit-he's-at-it-again_ look that was so well known amongst the crew, but simply a fuck me look that spoke volumes.

"Luffy..." The teen glanced for a moment at the person who had spoken, for once it wasn't Zorro or Sanji. It was Usopp. "Why do you think your heart hurts?"

Luffy's response was automatic. "Because she could have died and left me alone." The words alone held a wealth of meaning, though the teen didn't seem to catch it. Which was a little weird really. Luffy usually pretended to be dumb, it didn't mean that he _actually_ was.

But when it came to certain matters- especially where girl's were concerned- he had an _amazing_ lack of attention to certain little details that almost constantly got him into trouble with Nami. And Usopp didn't even want to think about the last time he'd pissed Robin off.

So maybe it wasn't quite so odd that he didn't catch the meaning of his own words? Maybe.

He and the other's however, seemed to catch onto what their former captain was attempting to convey to them, even if he wasn't aware of it. And while Zorro was a little bit peeved about it. The rest of them seemed to understand well enough.

Luffy _liked_ Kay.

And not in the let-just-be-friends kind of way either. Though how he could have formed such a deep attachment to the young woman in such a short amount of time was an absolute mystery to the lot of them. The group of men were sometimes absolutely astounded by some of Luffy's 'idiocies'.

Sort of like now.

The whole small group was _gaping_ at him like a bunch of fish.

This time the one to recover was Sanji as he said, "Luffy, when you think about Kay- what are you both doing?"

"Huh?" Luffy said curiously as Usopp went on to say.

"You know, when you think of her, are you giving her flowers or something just to make her smile?" Sanji tried again. This time Luffy seemed to understand what he was talking about and began to systematically blow each of their minds right out of the fucking water with each word that he uttered.

By the time he was finished, Sanji was unconscious in a small pool of his own blood. Zorro was still gaping and Usopp and Franky both had their hands clapped over their faces in an effort to stop their nosebleeds before they wound up like Sanji.

"W-What the hell kind of thoughts were those?!" Zorro finally roared in confusion. Mainly because pretty much everything that Luffy had said to them centered around really, really, _really_ ecchi and hentai things!

Luffy didn't do hentai and ecchi stuff! Hell the teen didn't even know what that sort of stuff was. In fact, ecchi stuff wasn't even a part of Luffy's normal scope of behavior! To know that he'd have had to have sex with an actual girl before, and Zorro knew that if ever placed in such a situation...nature wouldn't exactly take it's course.

But now, after hearing such dirty things coming from Luffy's mouth, he wasn't so sure. Maybe Luffy tended to let people underestimate him in the bedroom area too?

But why? Zorro wondered as Chopper finally rejoined them, wiping the blood off of his hands and took a quick look at Sanji and Usopp before turning to Zorro and saying in exasperation, "Why is it that when I come down to tell you stuff pertaining to Kay and her situation that I find that I have _more_ patients? Did I do something to offend, or anger the sea gods or something?"

"Y-You said that you came to tell us stuff about Kay-" Luffy started when Chopper huffed and said,

"Yeah. Her situation is tentative at best. She somehow popped a couple of stitches in her flight for the life boat. And a few others were torn. So I had to stuff her insides back in and sew her back up pretty good. But she won't be getting up for at least a two or three weeks or so. For now though, she's in so much pain that I'm going to have to keep her drugged for a few days just to see if it'll help her any. If she's still in too much pain after waking up a few days from now, I'll have to keep her drugged for a good bit to allow her to heal as much as possible."

Luffy and the others- with the exception of Sanji all seemed to absorb the information. When Luffy suddenly asked, "Chopper? W-Will Kay be able to have children again?"

Chopper looked at Luffy, his stare was oddly unsettling to the grey eyed teen as he let out a small exhaled breath before saying, "She should be able to if she heals up properly. While some of her injuries from fighting the marines are pretty bad, some of her reproductive organs are are bruised so badly that it will take _months_ after the outside heals up for them to fully heal themselves. And even once she's healed up- they may still pain her quite a bit. She'll need some strong pain killers and numbing drugs to take for when the pain becomes too much for her. Aside from that- she should be able to have children again."

Luffy felt his lips curve up in a slight smile as he quickly jumped up and thanked his friend and then ran off somewhere. Leaving the others to their own thoughts for the moment.


	9. Chapter 9

**Anti mary sue and Guest-**

 **What part of fanfiction, do the two of you not understand? This is a fan fiction story- if you still have trouble understanding this concept then follow these instructions.**

 **1) stop reading and harassing me.**

 **I do not tolerate fools easily unless I find them somewhat entertaining.**

 **And 2) look up the definition of the word 'fanfiction' and read it until you finally grasp the concept.**

 **If anyone else has an issue with my One Piece _fanfiction_ story- then just don't read it. I'd rather people who enjoy reading something new and interesting read it than trolls who want to waste my hard work and time.**

(************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Luffy entered the cabin quietly, not wanting to disturb Kay even if she was drugged at the moment and quickly made himself comfortable in his seat and sighed and he looked at her. This...wasn't how he had hoped things would go when he had made up his mind to follow her. It really, really wasn't.

Everything that he had hoped for had been the total opposite of what had actually happened so far. Not that he had actually been expecting her to leap at the chance to have him as a subordinate. That would have been unrealistic thinking on his part if he had expected it.

Thank god that he had contacted Shanks earlier about part of his issue, he really felt out of his depth right now and having some help would be nice since there wasn't really anyone on the Merry that could help him.

Sighing he took a moment to analyze the situation as best as he could, factoring in everything that he knew about Kay so far, including her sickly state among other things- and began to plan to fatten her up some first thing when she was awake again to make up for what weight she was going to lose while sleeping/healing. Broth could only sustain a body for so long.

And she looked like she could stand to gain about thirty pounds or so.

Besides, he wanted her healthy for...uh..future events.

Of course when he thought back to his earlier conversation with Usopp, his mind sort of...spaced out on him, leaving him with far more questions than answers about his behavior since meeting her before inwardly cringing as he realized that he owed her a huge, _huge_ apology for nearly killing her a while ago.

Indirectly of course, but he had almost killed her just the same. However he couldn't very well apologize to her while she was unconscious- she wouldn't hear him, and this time would be better used not only in monitoring her condition (just in case) but also preparing for their departure.

He needed to make sure that everything pertaining to his new life as her subordinate was in order on top of his affairs as the former captain of the Straw Hats. Especially since he knew that he was sort of leaving them in a lurch here.

Scrubbing his face with his hands for a second, he huffed slightly before deciding to get to work.

He'd start with the secret room built into the walls of his cabin since it was in part what concerned him the most at the moment aside from Kay's health.

Ever since before he had set out to become a pirate, he had been accumulating a great deal of gold, silver, copper, paper money and even rare and precious gems and jewelry. In fact a lot of his stuff had been given to him by Ace and Sabo before he had died when they were all little kids, however unlike the other two- he'd hidden his booty really, really, _really_ well.

Not only that but he had secretly stolen a majority of his funds right out from Nami's nose as well, but in his defense- it wasn't like he could just walk up to her and ask for some money- she was such a money grubber that she'd expect him to pay her back with interest if she gave him any, and he knew it.

There were some items that he'd like to take with him among the gems and jewelry that he had, mostly for sentimental reasons, items belonging to his late mother, gifted to him by his grandfather at one point during his childhood as well as some items given to him by Shanks.

Though he didn't quite care of _most_ of the pieces so much that he wouldn't jump at a chance to sell them if the need arose.

Aside from that he had about ten chests of gems, fifteen of jewelry, twenty eight of rare and precious high priced pearls, nine large- and by large he meant that he could stuff both Chopper in his big humanoid form, and Franky together in them- that was how _large_ they were; chests full of gold, seven medium chests of silver and the rest of the coins and such were sort of haphazardly strewn about the floor of the hidden room.

He had even come across several, beautifully hand carved ivory chests that he wanted to keep.

Anyways, he figured that he could take at least half of the stuff (give or take) with him when he and Kay and possibly Robin too- left the crew, and if so- then he would have enough to provide a more than comfortable life for the three of them well until they each died.

But then he wasn't terribly worried about Robin so much as he was Kay. Robin had been a pirate ever since she had been a little kid, and much like him. She probably had stashes of treasure and shit everywhere.

He didn't know enough about Kay to know what she had before she had joined him and his friends at the marine base to save Robin.

He didn't even know if she had a home or not. Or a job. Or much else now that he really thought about it. He'd have to ask her once she was awake and he'd apologized for nearly killing her.

If she didn't have those things, then he'd take care of acquiring them for her. It was simply that simple. She needed, and he provided. That was what subordinates did right?

Besides even with just half of the stuff he planned to take with them, he would still have more than enough to buy thirty Merry's, a nice medium sized island, and _still_ have enough to not only pay his own bounty at least three hundred times over but also to purchase a nice piece of land and build a nice house on it in which they could live in as well.

Not to mention that he would even have enough to set up trusts for Kay's children and grandchildren to live on for several generations.

Which was fine, he wanted that for them. But he'd have to be careful when he set everything up. Which only left the portion of stuff he didn't wish to take.

Luffy was a worrier by nature. Well...sort of.

It was part of the reason why he was only taking half of his funds and such with him. He wanted the rest of the crew to have the other half which would be more than enough for each of them to give up pirating forever and live in the lap of luxury if they wanted.

Zorro could open his own sword fighting school.

Usopp could train people to be sharpshooters.

Nami could return to her home and her sister if she wanted.

Sanji could open up his own on the sea restaurant, and cook for all kinds of people.

Chopper could open a clinic or hospital and maybe even a small school to train other's wanting to become doctors.

Robin if she decided to leave with he and Kay, could settle down somewhere quiet and teach others to read those weird graphts that she was always looking for.

Luffy smiled at the thought of them all doing something like that. He'd bet that each of them would have such an awesome time. It almost made him feel sad that he might not ever see them again once he left.

He wasn't sure how long he sat there working things out in his head, before he moved his thoughts to a piece of paper and such, but after a few long and strenuous hours- a crick in his neck- and no sleep whatsoever, Luffy glanced back over at Kay again and stifled a tired yawn before muttering.

"I think I'm going to sleep now. _Don't run away_." And with that, he leaned himself back into a semi comfortable position and dozed off.


	10. Chapter 10

Luffy wasn't sure how long he had managed to get some sleep. It wasn't really important to him anyways. All he knew was one second he was dead to the world and the next, he was wide awake and up out of his seat scanning the cabin for some sort of threat that he felt. When at first glance he couldn't find the threat, he moved over to Kay and pressed his fingertips to her throat.

Feeling the soft, slow thudding of her heart underneath his fingertips gave him a small measure of relief. But only just so. Whatever he was feeling was still there, lurking just beyond his ability to identify it. Shifting his hand from his captain's throat to the bed cover's he did a quick check of her person/injuries.

Looking for any possible blood or damage that she may have done herself somehow while he slept. He even went so far as to tug the shirt that she was wearing up over her shapely hips and check her stomach before carefully tugging the hem back down in place and then recovering her with the blanket.

If the threat he felt wasn't in the room and wasn't pertaining to Kay's health- then it was somewhere outside. Moving stealthily from the room, he opened the door and made quick work of locating what had set his senses off.

It was a Navy battleship. One of the biggest that he'd ever seen before, and from the looks of it- they were gearing up to attack the Merry.

Moving faster than anyone would have ever thought him capable of before, he ran from door to door waking his friends by banging on the door in a specific rhythm that he'd come up with to indicate 'dire straights' and then as they were all piling out of their cabins with sleepy, frazzled expressions to see what was going on as he started shouting as loud as he could while he grabbed the nearest rope and began to untie it to free the sails.

"Guys get a fucking move on! There's a Navy battleship heading right for us! Nami get to the helm! Robin go stay with Kay! The rest of you get your asses down here now and help me weigh anchor before that thing rams us! Sanji, Usopp, Chopper- if that thing starts firing on us- take care of it!"

That was all it took to get everyone moving.

Apparently the words, 'Navy' and 'ram us' were wonderful motivator's because before he even knew it the sails were down, and the anchor was up and their ship was more than halfway out of the way before they were even spotted.

There was a little bit of riffle and cannon fire, and the two ships definitely scuffled a bit, but both managed to escape without much damage and both crews managed to escape with a minimum amount of damage.

Though Luffy knew that one of the only reasons for the initial attack on them was that the marines had been expecting them to be so grievously injured from their prior battle with the Navy that they would be easy pickings.

They wouldn't be thinking that again, Luffy noted with some satisfaction as he used his hands to rip the motor out of the ship along with it's rudder once he felt it was at a safe distance from the Merry knowing that by doing so, he would delay their return to any nearby base.

They could still report their run in, but with a crippled ship with little to no ability to actually defend itself- none on the Merry would have to worry overly much about them deciding to follow them or attack them again.

After handing the pilfered metals and such to Franky whom had been clapping his hands and practically dancing around in place at the thought of being able to mess with Navy grade materials, Luffy then started to walk off when he heard Zorro say, "That was a nice save. Too bad that you're abandoning us to follow some skirt. I think we _inevitably_ would have made a good captain out of you."

It hurt to hear his former first mate and friend say something like that to him, but Luffy let it slide. Mostly in part because it was the truth- or rather it was the truth from Zorro's perspective. And perhaps the other's perspective too.

However another voice chimed in this time, coming from Robin whom was standing just outside of the cabin and had heard Zorro's words and were somewhat angered by them. "Shut up Zorro. You just wish that you were brave enough to give up everything including your greatest dream just for a woman," When everyone's jaws dropped open the dark haired woman smirked before then tacking on, "Besides- I don't think Luffy-san will be leaving you anytime soon. Kay is a lot of things, but deliberately cruel enough to take your captain and friend from you isn't one of them."

Luffy could barely hold back the urge to utter something along the lines of, "Nani?" until he'd actually said it and then quickly blushed and slapped his hands over his mouth to keep himself from saying anything else.

Dammit, he must still be half asleep or something.

He usually had far better control over himself than what he was displaying right now.

"W-What do you mean Robin?" Sanji asked, not really daring to hope that the woman was right. As much as he didn't want to lose his friend and captain, he knew what Luffy was like once he made up his mind about something. And there was rarely any stopping him.

Robin merely proper her cheek up in her hand and smiled at them before saying, "Kay once told me when we first met, and I found myself in trouble with the Navy- when she came to save me- 'I am a keeper or people and objects of great value to this world. I do not _steal_ or _take_ \- for I am incapable of doing so without a good reason. Instead I listen to the voices inside of their hearts and keep and protect them until they find their true place in the world.' She was so small, and so very, _very_ young compared to me that at first I merely thought her a fool."

"But after that particular incident, she started staying closer and closer to me until one day I snapped and attacked her. I hurt her. Badly. It's always been something that I've regretted, but even so- she still got back up and started following me again."

"I must have lost patience with her at least a hundred times. I broke her bones, put her in at least five coma's, ruptured internal organs- I even tried turning her into the Navy one or two times for the reward money. She suffered greatly at my hands. And _still_ she followed me and helped take care of and protect me."

" _I didn't deserve it._ She went without food, shelter, warmth and other things a lot of times and I still didn't understand... I was cursed to be a monster and outlaw since I was a child. I didn't deserve her pity or her kindness- But after a while I began to slowly understand."

"Kay has only stolen one thing in all her life. It wasn't something of actual value, not in the conventional sense anyways. But when she handed said item to me and I realized what it was- I demanded to know how she found it and got her hands on it. I was such pain to her sometimes. But she still managed to get one of my most treasured items from my home island for me...I started warming up to her after that despite not knowing what she had done to get it."

"I found out later that she had been walking passed a Navy sponsored auction house and she had heard one of those little voices say my name. She had gone in to see what was speaking to her and found an old, half burned book with mine and my late mother's names in it. And had stolen it before it could be sold off. Saying that it was best to return it to the person that it belonged too rather than let it suffer. She's always been both good and weird like that. So I doubt that she will take Luffy since he is the heart of our crew." Robin fell silent for a moment before Franky asked,

"How can you be so sure that she won't take Luffy-san from us?"

"Because, when she showed up at the marine base the other day to help us- she could hear our hearts practically screaming for help. Even when I said that I wanted to die- she could hear the truth within every beat of my heart. It said, 'I want to live and return to my friends.' And each of yours must have said something along the lines of, 'We will save you!' and 'We will protect you from this fate.' I think it's in part why she fought so hard to save me. It had little to nothing to do with Luffy's promise to step down and give up his dream so that he could follow her. She was merely helping us to fulfill our heart's greatest desires."

Everyone goggled at the woman before Chopper muttered, "It can't possibly be that easy." Causing Robin to smirk at them again as she repeated,

"It is. Like I said before, she's both good and weird that way."

"Then...that just means that she's really someone to respect and admire." Luffy said after a heartbeat or so. Robin merely grinned at him as the others reluctantly, silently agreed. That if the woman was everything that Robin said, she was indeed someone to respect and admire.


	11. Chapter 11

It was sometime in the early morning hours while everything was quiet and calm, that one of Shanks men finally spotted the Merry- and then a good distance away spotted the Navy ship. Calling out in alarm due to the proximity of the marine vessel, all hands were called onto deck to arm themselves for the possibility of an attack while Shanks quietly weaved his way through his men until he found and was standing next to Ace whom had practically been bouncing off of the walls for nigh half a day now.

How Whitebeard managed to ever put up with someone so annoying was beyond Shank's ability to figure out. But he knew one thing, after almost half a day of being in Ace's presence, he'd been tempted to kill the boy far too many times to even bother counting.

Thus making Whitebeard, in his mind, damned near close to a fucking saint.

"The tail end of that Navy ship has been ripped all to pieces." Ace said, sounding more than a little bit awed by the sight. And yeah, Shanks would admit, even to himself- it was a fairly fascinating sight to behold.

He let out a soft chuckle before responding automatically, "Looks like your brother didn't like them being here. Tis his handy work."

"If he was going to fuck up the ship- why not do it right and sink it?" Ace asked curiously.

"Simple, it's just not how he operates," Shanks said as he turned and began to bark out orders to his some of crew to stay on the ship, and watch out for trouble while some of the other men went aboard the Navy vessel and roughed up a few people until he and Ace returned. Once he finished barking out his orders, he watched everyone scamper off before turning back to Ace and merely saying, "If Luffy had really wanted the lads dead- they would be. There would be little that any of them could do to stop him once he took out their weapons."

Which was true. But he wasn't sure if Ace really understood.

Luffy tended to be a deep well when it came to motives and what drove him to do specific things. Shanks knew that well enough since the lad was a lot like him.

And by a 'lot' he meant- a _lot_.

Shanks himself, when it came to what drove him as well as the motives behind his many, many unspeakable and unfathomable actions- tended to be much like an ocean. You could look at it, even dive into it in an effort to reach the bottom- but you would never reach the bottom without drowning or at least getting eaten by some sea beast lurking in the darkest depths.

It sucked, but it was the chance that you took.

Whereas with Luffy, if you fell down the 'well' in his mind, you would either become so irrevocably lost and worn down that you would either drown or go mad. Shanks, when he usually met up with Luffy to catch up and such- tended to not delve terribly deep into the lads affairs unless he was invited to do so.

That boy's mind was a terrible thing to get wrapped up in.

"Come, we'll let part of the crew board the Navy ship and then we'll go get in closer to the Merry and board it." Shanks said as he turned and started to head back towards his cabin when he heard Ace ask,

"Hey, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to go pack me a bag. Chances are that you'll need to grab your own as well since we'll likely be on the Merry for a while." Shanks replied as he started walking again and brushed past his first mate and told the man that he was in charge of the ship and crew until further notice, and snickered when he heard the man practically shouted at him as he walked off.

"Are you insane! How could you put me in charge of this lot of savages! Our ship will burn down and sink within a day! Oi! Captain come back here!"

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After the morning's earlier bit of excitement, Luffy didn't bother trying to go back to sleep again. He couldn't even if he had tried too anyways. Instead to kill time, he had grabbed a few items from Nami and Robin's rooms and had Robin show him how to use them and then applied that knowledge towards giving his captain a much needed manicure and then painted her nails a nice opalescant mint green color with tints of purple and pink in it.

Several times in fact.

And then once he grew bored with that, he found a nice book and settled back down in his usual spot so that he could read to her for a little bit. Though he doubted that she found the adventures of pirates terribly stimulating. However he wasn't the type of person who kept books of poetry among his usual reading material.

Robin was the type- but he didn't dare wake her up again since she had a tendency to attempt to rip his head off if she didn't get enough sleep. And the last time he'd sent anyone near her room to wake her for a 'non-emergency' said person hadn't been able to move after she had turned them into a human pretzel.

So- lesson learned there, Luffy thought to himself with a small shrug of his shoulders as he slowly shut the book and set it aside. He'd reached the point in the story were the pirates were going marauding and would be raping and murdering innocent people.

He usually read those parts to use as a guidelines of what _not_ to do as a pirate- but since he'd been reading the story aloud- and he wasn't a hundred percent sure whether or not Kay was in the kind of sleep that was dreamless, he'd opted to simply skip it or not read it at all.

He was about to look for something else to do when he felt rather than heard the two people boarding the Merry and merely sighed, thinking that it was probably a good thing that everyone was asleep again. Being asleep meant that they were out of the way and he didn't have to worry about them getting hurt if he had to defend them and the ship.

Getting up out of his seat, Luffy moved to the door and slowly opened it and stepped out to greet the ship's visitors.


End file.
